Locality of Permian terrestrial vertebrates in cupriferous sandstones in the
southwestern vicinity of the Urals
I. A. Efremov*
With the blossoming of the copper-ore mining industry in the southwestern Ural
foothills since the middle of the past century, during underground work there began to be
turned up the remains of terrestrial vertebrates, which were gathered chiefly by Wangenge
von Kualen. These remains, belonging to amphibians and reptiles, were described in the
works of Kutori, Echwald, Seeley, von Meyer, Twelvetrees, and others—unfortunately
without the necessary morphological approach, and with a muddled synonymy. The originals
of the works are either lost or scattered throughout museums abroad. The fauna of the
cupriferous sandstones, in as far as it is possible to judge, is very interesting and at present
furnishes the indispensable starting point for studying the Permian and Permo-Triassic fauna
of the terrestrial vertebrates of the U.S.S.R.
In the summer of 1929, the Geological Museum (now the Paleozoological Institute)
sent me to the Urals for the purpose of investigating the possibilities of obtaining new
materials. In addition to this, in 1930 I took part in the work of the Kargalin party of the
GGRU, which was studying cupriferous sandstones. During the period there, two regions of
cupriferous sandstones of the Ural foothills known for previous discoveries of vertebrate
remains were studied: the Kargalin region, 50 km northwest of Orenburg territory in the 130th
layer, and the Izyaksko-Sterlibashevski region of Steritamak state of the Bash Republic in the
129th layer.
The Kargalin region, with a total area of about 3,000 sq. km, presents a wide strip
northwest of the expanse, a strip that includes the tract between Yanghiz and Middle Kargalin
creeks, approximately from the middle of their course to their courses and farther north up to
*
Original citation: Efremoff, I. A. 1931. Mestonshkorzdenie Permskyhk Nazemnihk Pozvonochnyhk v
Medistyhk Peschanikahk yeugozapadnovo Preeurallya. Izvestiia Akademii Nauk SSSR, Otdelenie
Matematicheskihk i estestvennyhk Nauk, Seriia VII, 5:691–705. Unknown translator. Generously donated by the
Biosciences Library, University of California, Berkeley, and courtesy of Patricia Holroyd and William Clemens.
UCB call number AS 262 A44 1919. Transferred to electronic copy and edited by Abree Murch and Matthew
Carrano, Smithsonian Institution, 2014.
1
the village of Novo-Sposanie. Over all this territory are scattered groups of mines that now
are deserted, and their diggings cover considerable areas of the steppes. As a result of the
negative character of the relief and the absence of energetic erosion, the orography of the
region is unsuitable for geological investigation. Most of the slopes of the valleys and ravines
long ago attained the normal slope and are drawn, but because they are denuded as a result of
denudation and the firmness of the sandstone, they do not show new cuts. Morphologically
the region presents a continuous system of small mountains and plateaus cut through by
various sequences of dry valleys and ravines. Such a partition came about as the result of the
washing away of lenses of the more porous strata: the firmer ones, the more closely cemented
strata, were left in the form of mountain-remains in front of the monolithic plateau of the
sandstone-like layer Pb2.
The geology of the region is in general not complicated, because everywhere there is
only one series of overlying layers, a thickness of gray sandstones Pb2. All the younger
formations are washed out, but the thickness of this series exceeds 1,000 meters, according to
the borings of the 1929 Kargalin party whose data were so graciously communicated to me by
N. K. Razumovskii. In this region there are no noticeable tectonic disturbances.
The strata that are represented in the region are uniform as to their basic components.
The sandstone and marl bound together by various transverse layers (marl-like sandstone and
sandy marl, and as if a derivative of both), also a conglomerate of marly pebbles in the
sandstone, fill all the layers encountered. All three strata yield innumerable variations caused
by different processes of deposition and lithification. The sandstones vary as to the coarseness
of grain, the admixture of grains, the composition and density of the carbonate cement and of
the conglomerate not only in the size, form, and composition of the marl pebbles, but likewise
in the cement. Two types of marls are found—red ones typical of continental Permian
deposits, always oreless, and gray marls, slightly bituminous, often containing organic
remains and copper as a cementing substance*. No considerable concentrations of gel
formations were observed—oxides of iron, silicic acid. Gypsum and salt are absent, as well as
all complex chemical fractions characteristic for basins with large-scale evaporation of
inflowing waters rich in dissolved minerals. The strata of the Kargalin region undoubtedly
were formed by means of an energetic washing down of material, already sorted and washed
*
lit.: fusion.
2
out. This fact is attested by the complete absence of pebbles, even the smallest pebbles, as
well as of coarsely broken material, and erupted material.
The general character of the overlying layers is typical for similar continental layers
and requires a special approach for studying it. All the overlying layers, as well as the varied
size of the lenses of marls, sandstones, and conglomerates, are irregularly oriented, lenticular,
and replace each other. Very often the cutting of one series of overlying layers by another is
observed, an angular discordance and tilting of the washed-out surface. The various types of
oblique stratification, and the variations in the very petrographic composition, form a
complex picture of stream deposits of varied power and speed; they give the impression of a
“surviving” of some series over others as a result of greater cementation and consequent
firmness. The lenses in the complex form structures of the most complex formations—
meandering bands*, semicircles, and flat “cakes,” the edges of which are cut by a washout at
the contacts with other lenses along the horizontal.
The entire Pb2 layer (exclusive of its underlying strata, which nevertheless form with it
one single complex, but strata extending into unknown depths and requiring deep drilling for
the purpose of studying them) clearly falls into two divisions. The lower division is exposed
somewhere along the bottom of the deep caverns and is invariably found in all the drillings at
a depth of 70 to 80 meters. This is a rather thick layer of red-brown and brownish marls, on
the washed surface of which lies, generally speaking, the upper division of gray and red
sandstones and marls which include nests of ore and organic remains. In the denuded portions
of the lower layer are seen only the uppermost part without the slightest traces of fauna.
Directly upon the layer of marls there rests a basal conglomerate of the upper layer with large
(as much as 30 cm in diameter) pebbles of limy marl. The upper layer has a thickness of more
than 100 meters and it alone is of value for paleontological study. I propose to designate it by
the ore layer of the continental facet P2-Pr2.
The overwhelming predominance of the ore layer belongs to the gray and red
sandstone and to the red marls. In general, the entire layer presents a rather even alternation at
right angles to the sandstones and red marls; these and others often attain a considerable
thickness and alternate no more than once in the entire thickness of the layer. This fact
indicates certain cycles in the course of the deposition of the layer, as if indicating the
*
“ribbons”
3
pulsations of the powers of the factors of deposition, a pulsation that has been several times
reduced.
The divisions of the gray and red sandstones are not oriented either stratigraphically or
altitudinally. Without doubt, these layers are identical as to mechanical composition and
mechanical conditions of formation, being distinguished only as to their facies and
distribution in the stratum, underlying the known facies. It is remarkable that neither in the
red sandstones nor in the red marls have there been found organic remains. All organic
remains are characteristic exclusively of the gray sandstones and gray marls. This very same
fact is noticed even in the distribution of cupriferous ores, the connection of which with
organic remains was pointed out long ago. In the underground workings of the Nicholski and
Michaelovski mines, I had the opportunity to see the changing of red marl into gray at the
point of contact of the layer of red marl lenses with the ore lens in the pendant side. Analyses
of the metamorphosed marl showed an average of 0.80% Cu. The great quantity of animal
remains in the pendant side, remains that most likely created a zone rich in carbonic acid and
hydrogen sulfide, likewise played a well-known role. Even such a metamorphosis of marl was
observed by me in pebbles and small shallow marly lenses in the ore-bearing conglomerates
of the Novo-Myasnikovskii mine conglomerates, created by the energetic process of
accumulation. The gray marls are found much more rarely than the red ones, sometimes, as
soon proved to be the case, as marls transformed from the red marls. These marls form tiny
lenses and inclusions in the mass of gray sandstones of coarse ore-bearing bodies and contain
a large amount of copper (5 to 6%). The primary gray marls are observed in the lower parts of
the layer in the form of lenses, always containing finely distributed cupriferous minerals and
remains of plants and animals. On the pendant side of such lenses always appear the schistose
sandstones that run upward and change into lumpy gray sandstones. Such marls are usually
slightly bituminous.
The Izyasko-Sterleebashevskii region has been studied by me rather superficially
within the limits of the water-divide and of the middle course of the Tyater and Izyak[a]
rivers, but it includes an incomparably larger area, while it is also being extended by the strip
sweeping NNW and SSE In this region is also developed the ore-bearing layer P2, in which
numerous mines have been worked and which is celebrated for the discoveries of fossil
Amphibia and Reptilia (Deuterosaurus, Rhopalodon, Zygosaurus, Melosaurus). Eastward
4
from the region there is a strip of dislocations and outcroppings of the Ufimiskii Series, also
ore-bearing. There are no remarkable dislocations within the limits of the region investigated.
Morphologically the region is similar to the Kargalinskii one, except that the ranges
(mountains) and plateaus in this locality attain a much greater height, blending into the
general system of the southern spurs of the Ural range. All the general conditions of bedding
and placing of the overlying ore-bearing strata of the region are identical with those of the
Kargalinskii region. The essential distinction of the ore-bearing layer of the Izyak region from
such a Kargalinskii layer consists in the presence of a considerable ore-bearing conglomerate
with an admixture of pebbles from the gray marl, and of well-defined erupted strata—of
porphyriess, but also hornstones, quartz[es], jaspers, etc. These conglomerates, while varying
from extremely dense ones to the porous (almost gravel-like) ones, do contain ore-bearing
material in the cement and often form lenses that are almost equal in thickness to that of the
entire ore-bearing strata. The gray marls are found more often in this place and form whole
series with the remains of carbonized plants and the meager fauna of small Productidae. I did
not find any red layers, but nevertheless I cannot express more definitely on the matter of
their absence in the Izyak-Sterlibash[evskii] region. There is no doubt that the predominance
of gray layers here is decidedly more considerable than in the Kargalinskii region. I found no
remains of vertebrates. All the old discoveries were made during underground work, so that in
the further exposition all factual material will refer to the Kargalinskii region. Theorizing
based upon geological data and in accord with old information about discoveries of
vertebrates will be common to both regions.
As even in the Kargalinskii region, the ore-bearing layer of the IzyakoSterlibah[evskii] region lies upon a washed-out surface of a layer of red marls. The thickness
of the ore-bearing strata here is much smaller and evidently does not exceed 50 or 60 meters.
The organic remains form rather considerable accumulations at times, always inferior
to a given lens. There are found in the ore-bearing gray marls and in the schistose fine-grained
sandstones impressions of plants (Walchia, Dadoxylon, Calamites, etc.), a few Invertebrata,
mostly Nayadites and Estheria, and the fishes Platysomus, Amblypterus, and Acrolepis. In the
coarser sandstones the vegetable remains are carbonized and either deposited in thin layers, or
scattered and chaotically distributed within the mass of sandstone. In the coarse lumpy and
porous sandstones are found petrified fragments of huge trunks (up to 1 meter in diameter),
5
rich in iron and belonging evidently to the Dadoxylon group. Just such trunks are found even
in conglomerates in which no other vegetable remains are found.
These trunks do not have bark with the encircling layer and they show foreign
elements. For the most part such trunks, infiltrated with copper, were first found in the
conglomerate zone of the mines in the Izyako-Sterlibash[evskii] region, where continuous
piles (heaps) were formed reaching 15 meters in length.
Remains of land vertebrates are found very rarely. In the larger lenses of gray marl,
together with good impressions of plants and the remains of fishes, skulls and skeletal
elements of aquatic Labyrinthodontia were found. Discosaurus? from the marl lens of the
Kuzyminoskii mine was described by A. N. Ryabinin. In this same lens and the lens of the
Nicholayeff mine we collected remains of Labyrinthodontia, although they are not yet
identified. Previously, discoveries of skulls of the Amphibia Melosaurus, Platyops, and
Zygosaurus were made in the marl inclusions and small lenses of the lower pocket of ores in
the Kargalinskii and Izyako-Sterlibashevskii regions. Besides this, we turned up fragments of
the large bones of Labyrinthodontia in the conglomerates and gray sandstones in the workings
of mines on the divide between the Yanghiz and Vyerknaya Karghalka rivers.
Bones of Reptilia are usually found in the lumpy gray sandstones with carbonized
remains of plants, and with ore-bearing veins—piecemeal and sporadically, together with
stalks of Dadoxylon. In general, the most complete discoveries of the part—skulls and
complexes of parts of a postcranial skeleton—were made in the Izyako-Sterlibachevskii
region. The Kargalinskii region yielded rarer and more fragmentary remains. After the mines
were closed, all later collections were conducted in the tailings and furnished remains of
Tetrapoda, remains that are only fragmentary and therefore devoid of serious scientific
significance.
The investigations of 1929-1930 make it possible to give the following conclusions:
(1) The fossil remains of vertebrates are found sporadically only in a few lenses
scattered throughout the ore-bearing stratum, and are not governed by any definite horizon or
zone. The presence of remains of plants and invertebrates in a given lens indicates a facies
suitable for the deposition and preservation of the remains of Tetrapoda. I shall say that in not
all lenses by far, in lenses that were formed under favorable conditions of deposition, is it
possible to expect with certainty to find bones of Tetrapoda. For example, out of 10 given
6
lenses satisfying all conditions for the preservation of the remains of terrestrial vertebrates,
only one may be bone-bearing. In large lenses, only part of the lens may be bone-bearing. For
example, just such a one is the bulky marl lens of the Kuzminovskii mine where the remains
of vertebrates are found only in the northern corner of the lens. In the lumpy gray
sandstones—in the facies with the occurrence of reptile bones—there is a still lesser
possibility of discovery. Reptilia of the Kargalinskii fauna—Deuterosaurus and Rhopalodon
—lived on the continents outside of [the] water basins; their skeletons were subjected to quick
subareal destruction and only in rare cases were buried. In looking for vertebrates in
continental strata it is necessary to be guided not only by the laws of favorable facies and
lithogenesis, but by a certain law that has been hitherto unknown to us. I shall designate this
law as the law of sporadicity, a law based upon the facts set forth above, namely on the fact
that even in favorable facies remains of Tetrapoda are found sporadically. This law has its
roots only in the biosphere and needs to be studied by all fossil hunters by establishing local
biodiagnoses and migration, and also the recent factors of burial and concentration of animal
remains. Taking this law into account, we can say that all the continental strata, exclusive
perhaps of the barren and gypsum-bearing and salt-bearing facies, should contain remains of
Tetrapoda that sooner or later will be turned up, but we also should warn paleontologists
against being quick to label given layers as “dead layers” or as “barren layers.”
(2) No bone-bearing overlayers were disclosed, not even in a single working of an orebearing stratum in the Kargalinskii region. The same cannot be said about the IzyakoSterlibashevskii region, because it has been investigated very incompletely.
(3) All the mines that have previously furnished remains of terrestrial vertebrates,
which are ruined and have had their shafts filled in, should be struck off from the lists of
localities.
(4) The collection of fossil vertebrates from the tailings are useless for the purpose of
studying the Kargalinskii forms. The finding of remains in the tailings is hampered because of
the scarcity of remains and the multitude of tailings; and because in the tailings the material
was found almost exclusively to be broken and ground to bits, the value of any possible finds
amounts to almost nothing.
At present it is possible to show a few places where we turned up remains of
Tetrapoda, and these places require a searching examination.
7
(1) The Petrovelikanskaya drift in the Nicholayevskii cave is about 1 km from
Gornovs farm on the Upper Kargalka. Beyond the first “crest” on the left side along the
course of the drift, the ore-bearing sandstone is about 1.5 meters thick with a mass of
carbonized plants and silicified stalks of Dadoxylon. In this place was found the shoulder of a
huge reptile of the Rhopalodon type.
(2) The Kuzminovskii mine is 7 km north of the Gornov farm. In the eastern part of
the mine were left piles of a marly ore (over 100,000 poods)* undelivered to the mill. In the
ore are many remains of plants, impressions of the shells of Nayadites and Estheriae, rare
wings of insects, ganoid fishes (Platysomus, Amblypterus, Acrolepis, and others), and remains
of small Stegocephalia.
(3) There is a small valley on the divide between the Yanghiz and Vyerhknaya rivers
of the [Upper] Kargalka, whence we received the bone of a large labyrinthodont from a layer
of dense conglomeratic sandstone in a series of lumpy red sandstones.
(4) There are good impressions of plants, fishes, and insect wings, all of which can be
collected from the marl tailings of the Nicholayevskii, Nicholskii, Karpovskii, and StaroBeryezovskii mines.
In summing up all the adduced data, it is possible to say that only because of the work
in the mines have we found out the little that is known about the Karyalinskii fauna, buried as
rare remains in the ore-bearing stratum P2. There is no doubt whatsoever that future
discoveries will be found in complete dependence on the opening of mining activities in both
regions. Then, by means of well-informed workers and expert mining personnel, it will be
possible to realize an increase of discoveries, 90% of which were lost in times past.
The distribution of cupriferous ores in the layer is very important for the
paleontologist because it is always connected with animal and plant remains. The oreformation in the ore-bearing stratum shows up in the impregnation of separate lenses or whole
zones of the stratum with solutions of cuprous minerals. Of the latter, the most frequently
found are earthy malachite and azurite, next is cuprous tinsel, cuperous niello (copper
sulfide), and cuprite. Just as in the case of organic remains, the ore-bearing nests are found
only in the gray-colored layers and do not occupy any definite horizon in the stratum. The
variety of heights of the location of ore nests ranges between 2 and 80 meters, i.e. they
*
= 3,600,000 pounds.
8
include the whole thickness of the ore-bearing vein. The types of ores that are found in both
regions can be reduced to the following basic ones:
(1) A stony ore—a lumpy gray sandstone permeated rather evenly with azurite and
malachite, usually without accumulation of organic remains. The copper content is between
1% and 5%.
(2) A “Vapovaya”* ore—a gray marl with impressions of plants and fishes, and a thin
scattering of metal ores, oxides, and sulfides. The copper content is between 2% and 7%.
(3) A “Pulyechnaya”** ore—a schistose, porous, ore-bearing sandstone with small
concretions—chalcocite—in the center of the concretion, and azurite along the surface. The
average content of Cu is 3 to 4%; that of a particular vein is 1 to l.5%; and that of highconcentration concretions is as high as 25% Cu.
(4) A slaty ore—a schistose, dense, close-grained sandstone with an even sprinkling of
ore salts without organic remains. Copper content is between 1 and 3%.
(5) A veiny ore, lamp-black, and “Chyernyetz”***, are obtained as a result of the
accumulation of layers of carbonized plants. The carbonized matter is stored up, yielding a
rich carbonate (or oxide) (up to 30% Cu), and on its recumbent and pendant side the
sandstones are enriched, forming a crust of chalcozine, and a crust of azurite along the
periphery. The thickness of the ore layer is not greater than 30 cm. The copper content
averages between 16 and 20% .
(6) The “Chubarka”**** is generally some sort of ore conglomerate, but mostly porous
conglomerates with a coarse inclusion of a dark-brown, almost black, marl. The pebbles
contain up to 3% copper, but even the sandstone cement also contains copper. The usual
content is between 2 and 3.5%, and at times as high as 6% Cu.
(7) “A white sandstone with broken veins”—a lumpy, dense, gray sandstone with a
mass of carbonized stalks and stems of plants with a large quantity of the shells of Nayadites.
The enriched plants, mostly those that have been carbonized, as well as the sandstone are cut
through by a network of fine veins. The copper content is usually not higher than 2.5%. The
separate stalks of plants are transformed into a fine chalcocite.
lit.: “vaporized”, perhaps “porous”
lit.: “pellet-like”
***
lit.: “black ore,” apparently a black copper oxide or carbonate
****
lit.: motley or heterogeneous “layer”
*
**
9
The ore nests have the following three peculiar types of occurrence:
(1) A lenticular type, in which the copper bearing strata underlie only the particular
lens. To this type belong the nests of pellet-like and schistose ores that are found usually in
the upper horizons of the ore stratum, and the large lens of gray ore marls that rightly occurs
in the very lowest parts of the stratum.
(2) The veiny type, in which the cuprous minerals are greatly concentrated throughout
the layers of carbonized plant remains and form something like a thin cake.
(3) The zonal type. To this type belong all large concentrations and especially the
concentrations of the lower horizons. In these, all the layers of strata, the inclusions and lenses
that are included in a given zone, are infiltrated by means of mineral solutions
The form of ore bodies is extremely arbitrary, but usually the large concentrations
have the form of narrow bands, very thin compared with the thickness of their layer, bands
that are locked in the very depths of the layer, as if they were lying directly on the lower strata
of red-brown marls, which evidently represent the water-refracting bed. The ends of the
coarse inclusions often appear to be a transition of the ore sandstones into the gray sandy marl
which is poor in ore.
Genesis and facies. The well-known fauna from the ore-bearing stratum of both
regions is distinguished by the diversity of biological specializations along with a small
number of forms. The fishes are typical middle Permian freshwater ganoids, represented by
the genera Amblypterus, Acrolepus, Platysomus, and Palaeoniscus.
After examining many problematic species previously described and the species in the
Kargalinskii fauna, there are five authentic species of Amphibia and two species of Reptilia.
The Amphibia belong to the group of rhachitomous labyrinthodonts and include the
following forms:
Melosaurus—a peculiar form of semi-aquatic adaptation; Platyops, an elongated
carnivore of the rather large water basins; Zygosaurus, a dry-land labyrinthodont related to
the American type; Dissorophidae; Chalcosaurus, an indefinite form disclosing an origin
from Brachyopidae, and consequently adapted for mud; and Discosaurus?, a. small, mudliving stegocephalian.
The Reptilia are clearly relatives of the South African forms of the Karroo, but
unfortunately they are not yet thoroughly studied. These are exclusively dry-land forms and
10
belong to the groups Dicynodontia—Deuterosaurus, and Dinocephalia—Rhopalodon. It is
necessary to call attention to the discovery of a fragment of a Venjukovia skull, of a type
closely resembling that of mammals.
From the list adduced here the variety of vertebrate faunas of the ore stratum is
evident, to which corresponded the variety of subaerial (or sub-surface) biological stages in
the epoch of the genesis of cupriferous sandstones in both regions. There is no doubt as to the
extreme interest of the Tetrapod fauna, because in it we see the coming together of Gondwana
with Laurasia, and at least from the Upper Carbon[iferous] up to the middle Permian we also
find an indication of the lines of migration and evolution of the Tetrapod fauna in the
U.S.S.R. A study of this fauna should be urgent. In contrast to the Tetrapoda, the fauna of
aquatic Invertebrata is uniform, small in number, and indicates a uniform physico-chemical
regime and a short existence of the water-feeding-grounds. From the nature of the burial of
the organic remains, it is already possible to establish that the process of the genesis of the
strata went along various courses. The disorderly distribution of the plants in the sandstones is
the product of deposition of fast waters, in contrast to the layers of carbonized plants, in
which layers material was deposited in whole areas by the flow of shallow waters, as in the
case of the mouths of small rivers. The marl lenses are the formations of calm basins of still
water that leave the fine material precipitated with the fauna of fish and Amphibia, and with
growths of marsh plants without wood. On the bottom of these basins, processes of
putrefaction went on that implemented the precipitation of copper ores out of solution. The
layers of other facies in which vertebrate remains are found—schistose and marly
sandstones—are distinguished by fineness of grain, solid carbonate cementation, and
considerable content “pelitovyhk”* fractions, i.e. by traits of still-water precipitation. Among
the coarser ore-bearing sandstones in the Kargalinskii region, and the conglomerate ore
concentrations in the Izyaksko-Sterlibashevskii region, whole skulls of Amphibia are found
exclusively in the gray marl inclusions and small lenses, i.e. in local zones of still water where
they were contained during precipitation and buried. The sharpest attention should be given to
such lenslets and inclusions, both during the search and during the workings.
In close connection with the formation of vertebrate localities stands the genesis of
copper ores in both regions. According to all data, the deposition of ores in an ore vein is
*
li.: “pellet-like”
11
syngenetic. The formation of ore bodies is various; there are both syngenetic and epigenetic
ore nests. Predominantly syngenetic are the marly ore lenses in which precipitation of ores
took place only during the existence of the basin, which is born out by the abundance in the
marly sandstones of the beds in the lenses of organic remains not enriched with copper.
Evidently the pellet-like and schistose ores of the upper horizons are also syngenetic. The
coarse, ore-bearing zonal concentrations are epigenetic, but in all probability the process of
enrichment proceeded up to and during the time of lithification, otherwise it is difficult to
understand the enrichment of the marl inclusions and lenslets. The concentration of veiny and
small bodies proceeded by the action of subterranean waters that circulated in the stratum.
Very often the ore body appeared at the same time as the basin of subterranean waters. It is
necessary to point out that the basins of underground waters in the ore vein belong to a special
type, present probably in all ancient strata, not dislocated, and composed of highly mixed
water-permeated and non-permeated layers. These basins also are not dependent upon any
definite horizon and join lens-like in the bowl-shaped water-retaining layers at various heights
in the ore-bearing stratum. The subterranean waters in the stratum occurred in a condition of a
steady equilibrium, in view of the absence of fissures and tectonic disturbances from the
moment of formation of the stratum. The greatest number of basins is found in the depths of
an ore vein on the waterproof bed of the lower layer of red-brown marls. Even the stability of
the ore bodies with easily dissolved oxidized copper ores is explained by such inactivity of
the subterranean waters.
The general picture of the genesis of the ore vein in both regions may be restored in
the following features. The material of the deposit was derived during the denudation of the
Ural range. The coarser fractions and pebbles of the erupted layers in the presence of a
comparatively large quantity of waters were left nearer to the region of the denudation—in
the Izyaksko-Sterliboshevskii region. The Kargalinskii region received the already sorted fine
material that was transported a long way in the long streams. In the vicinity of the erosion
there was proceeding simultaneously a disturbance of the copper magma beds of a type of
quartz veins with an expansive zone of oxidized copper ores which were dissolved and during
deposition saturated the entire layer, subsequently being concentrated in the ore nests. Fully
understood is the connection of copper ores and organic remains with gray strata. These strata
were deposited in the presence of a large quantity of water, which explains the possibility of
12
the growth of flora and fauna, and the simultaneous influx of cupriferous solutions. The bandlike form of the larger ore bodies points to their cropping up in the subterranean streams of
comparatively steady flow. The copper in the Kargalinskii region was hardly brought in in the
form of mechanical particles, because together with the copper there inevitably would be
transferred various undissolved sulfate compounds of a type of barite with which the magma
concentrations are loaded. However, similar compounds were not found in the Kargalinskii
region. Such an investigation in the Izyaksko-Sterliboshevskii region would yield extremely
interesting data concerning the genesis of the ore stratum, if the region proved to yield
mechanical fragments of barites, pyrites, etc.
In conclusion it is well to point out that copper ores are peculiar to all continental
deposits of the Ural vicinity, deposits that extend far north along the Ural range. The chemical
and petrographic composition of the layers of the continental Permian facies is extremely
uniform and similar. The factors of deposition are identical, differing perhaps only in quantity
of waters. All the data indicate that the formation of the continental copper-bearing strata of
the near-Urals took place under identical conditions and was connected with a disturbance of
a single mountain massif—the Urals. As was shown, the “roots” of the strata extend very
deep. Evidently, all continental strata that survived the later washing and are found in zones
of tectonic extinctions have a very considerable thickness. The age of such strata may be
exceedingly great. Although the deposition of continental sediments proceeds faster than does
that of sediments of a shallow sea, still this inequality is partly leveled down, because each
thick continental layer is deposited by means of an endless washing in of an already deposited
but still unlithified series. In the sea the deposition of sediments is continuous. In all
probability all three bands of the continental deposits of the Urals—Ufimskii, Kazanskii and
Tartarskii—do gradually run through one another without a break or defection in suitable
places. Definite cycles are noticed only along the vertical, cycles connected with epeirogenic
movements, and cycles that depended on variations in denudation. For example, such is the
deposition of marls and gypsums at the end of every lower band and the beginning of the
upper one; these defects mark the completion of the cycle. Geographical facial insulations
could take place in various districts—lagoons, deltas, deserts with appropriate changes of
sediments into dolomites, gypsums, shales, etc. The depths of the thick layers evidently
belong to the “Permo-Carbon[iferous],” which is indicated by the development of the
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terrestrial vertebrate fauna. Sections of the continental deposits of North America in the states
of Texas, Illinois, and Oklahoma show a joining of the marine layers containing
Carboniferous fauna with Lower Permian. It is possible that a study of the depths of our
continental strata in the Urals will result in the discovery of analogues of the Wichita layers of
the North American Permian.
Thus in the Russian Permian “Gondwana” is noticed the separation of the continental
and non-Zechstein facies, which are distributed through the Lower Permian.
The migration of terrestrial vertebrates began not in the Upper, as one is apt to think,
but in the Middle and even partly the Lower Permian. The rhachitomous labyrinthodonts of
Gondwana type, dinocephalians and theromorphs, are found even in the Ufimskii horizon.
The abundant fauna of the labyrinthodont Platyops in the Kazan horizon arose through a long
evolution. At the same time the North Dvina fauna of the Upper Permian is no doubt a
relictual type. All the accumulated facts show that the continental layers of the Paleozoic in
the U.S.S.R. still require continued study for the purpose of a definite stratigraphy. The
peculiar conditions of deposition of the strata exclude the designations usually used, such as
“sandstone stratum,” “marly series,” etc. Only the detailed subdivision of the overlying layers
found in the given stratum, study of their chemical and petrographic peculiarities, [plus] study
of the mechanics of deposition and erosion can clearly throw light upon the genesis of the
continental strata. In the presence of such a program of study there will be ever more frequent
discoveries of the remains of Tetrapoda, which although still little known, yet undoubtedly
played a huge role in the evolution of the bygone animal kingdom of the region between
Gondwana and Laurasia.
I shall take the liberty of conveying my gratitude to the leader of the research group
from the Scientific-Researchers of the Metal Institute of Geological Studies of the
G.G.R.U.—i.e. to engineer N. K. Fazumovskii for his assistance and valuable advice in the
field and laboratory work.
Leningrad, 1931
Paleozoologhicheskii Institut Ak. Nauk.
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